Ducky's Duckling
by GothGirl1996
Summary: A murder in New Orleans of a woman's tutor and boss, forces her back to Virginia to reconnect with her adopted father in order to solve her tutor's murder. Whilst there she is surprised to be reunited with an old college friend- who also happened to be her boyfriend, long ago. Will they manage and will she find her way home, to the people who love her most?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

death of a scholarly soul

An elderly Scotsman sat by his fireside, nursing a dram of whiskey on New Year's Eve. His house was quiet, not a sound save for the crackling of the fire in the grate and the tick of the grandfather clock in the corner of his study. The clock chimed midnight and the man debated about whether to head to his bed or not, when a gun's muzzle was pressed against his temple by a black gloved hand.

Being a retired medical examiner he knew the hand belonged to a man. He had barely enough time to dial his assistant's mobile phone before the gun was pressed tighter against his head.

"Sir? Andy, is something wrong?" Came the crackling voice of his American, with a Scottish lilted, assistant, Catriona. "sir!"

"Good bye, Lieutenant." Came the gruff, accented voice of the man behind him. The elderly man, closed his eyes and thought of the beautiful young woman he was leaving behind in his stead. A woman, he knew, would catch this illusive gentleman who now held the gun to his head. He wasn't afraid, he was ready to meet his maker.

"Sir!" Catriona screamed as the shot rang out in her ears down the phone line.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

New Orleans to Virginia.

Catriona, a pale skinned, elegantly built, dark haired lass, sat on the bench outside her boss's house with her head in her hands. Her large, emerald eyes were rimmed with redness form bouts of crying.

"Cat, you should gets out of N.O for a while." She looked up as a man, blocked the sun. Their supreme boss- as Andy had always called him- Bobby Jenden stood, towering over her, his middle aged face ruddy with sun.

"I know. Sir, I have a request, as Andy's friend and associate-" Catriona began. But Jenden cut her off.

"You know I can't authorise that, Cat."

"I know. But I don't want some inefficient intern doing it and I don't want that brute from the hospital doing it either. I know can't... I was too close to him. But I know someone who would do it professionally and with decorum. Please, let me take him to Virginia."

"To Leon's group? No way." Jenden argued.

"Not to Leon, to Dr Mallard, their resident ME. I have the pleasure of knowing him personally. I know he'd do it." Cat smiled sadly and Bobby caved in.

"Alright, but you take some time off too," Jenden agreed, reluctantly, helping Catriona from her seat on the wall. "Be careful, Catriona."

"I will. Thank you, Bobby." Cat smiled as she turned to walk away, hitching her travel bag onto her shoulder.

"Mallard!" He called after her and she turned.

"Yes?"

"Is Dr Mallard a relation of yours?" Bobby asked as she climbed into driving seat of the NCIS Medical Examiners truck.

"No. No relation." Cat said flashing him a little smile which hid the truth. Bobby, who fell for that trick often enough when the Catriona or one of the women on his team did that, nodded. He believed her and that, for now, was good. He'd work it out sooner or later- then she'd be in trouble.

She dialled in a number on her cell phone and then put it to her ear, before she drove away. The recipient answered on the first ring.

"Hay, its me... No, I'm okay, we'll, kind of. I'm bringing you a body... Yeah I know, but I can't so this one alone... I'm going to need a room too... Yes, thanks. I'll see you in a few hours. I'm coming straight to NCIS... Alright, bye." She disconnected her call, put her phone away and took a deep breath before she drove her boss back to her hometown.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Surprises

She drove steadily for several hours when she reached the navy yard in Virginia, she showed her ID card and passed right through the gates and made her way to the autopsy garage. Once there she left the body with two orderlies and the assistant ME, Jimmy Palmer, before she made her way up to the squad room.

The lift doors dinged as she exited and made her way to Gibbs' teams section and stopped dead in her tracks. A dark haired, good looking man looked up at her and rose from his seat.

"Hi, special agent Anthony DiNozzo, can I help you?" The man asked, a slight flirtation in his voice.

"I'm looking for Dr Mallard, he knows I'm here..." She paused as the other man in the section stood up and stared at her. That was a face she couldn't forget.

"Oh my god. Katie-Lou?" The second man asked and walked towards her.

"Tim? Hay, its good to see you." She hugged the second man tightly and he sighed in her ear.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were in Edinburgh?" McGee asked, holding Catriona at arms length.

"I was, then I came back to the US three years ago. What are you doing here?" She asked, DiNozzo completely forgotten.

"I work here. Where are you now?"

"NCIS New Orleans, I'm their ME." She smiled and Tim smiled back.

"So what are you doing here?" He asked again and then turned around as Catriona's eyes glazed with tears as another man entered the bullpen. "Ducky? This is..."

"Oh, my duckling, come here." Ducky said and Catriona pulled from Tim's embrace to hug Ducky, her arms around his neck.

"Papa... He's gone." She wept in his shoulder and Ducky rubbed her back.

"Papa? Ducky's your dad?" Tim asked, stunned.

"Catriona is my adopted daughter and my goddaughter. I took her in when her parents died." Ducky explained. "Who's gone?"

"Andy. I brought him to you, I can't do the... The deed, alone and I don't trust any one to do it in New Orleans." She explained, with a sniff. Her voice slipping back to her native Scottish lilt.

"Oh, Catriona, that's what you meant on the phone. Come on, duckling. Let's go have some tea. Come on." Ducky said his arms around his daughter- for that's what she was. Adopted or not- and lead her down to Autopsy for a cup of tea.

Once they were gone, Tony turned on Tim.

"What was that?"

"She never told me she was Ducky's daughter- adopted or not." Tim muttered.

"You know her, Tim?" Ziva asked, rising from behind the desk to stand with him and Tony as Ducky left with 'Catriona',

"Yeah, we were at John Hopkins together. She never said anything though... About Ducky, that was a surprise." Tim was confused but his heart still swelled with love for the woman he'd lost when she'd returned to Edinburgh and he let himself remember their first meeting in the student housing at John Hopkins.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Tea and tales

17 years previous (working on the assumption Tim is about 35 present time)

Tim stared around at his new room at Johns Hopkins: small, basic, but liveable. He set up all his computers on the desk in the corner and paused as he heard a loud clamouring from outside his room. He moved to open his door as the clamouring came again.

Outside, on hands and knees, was a young woman with dark hair which fell to her waist, gathering up some hard back books, on human anatomy and circulatory systems. Tim knelt down beside her. "Here let me help." He said politely.

"Oh, thank you. Damn box, bottomed out. Knew I packed it too full." The woman said, her voice revealing her to have a Scottish lilt.

"You're Scottish?" Tim asked as he took a few bigger books off of her. He rose to his feet.

"Yes, my father and I moved here when I was 3, after my mum died. I'm Catriona, but you can me Katie." The woman smiled, tucking a loose strand of her auburn hair behind her ear and raising her emerald eyes to meet Tim's.

"Tim. Nice to meet you Katie," Tim smiled back, instantly taken with her. "Studying Biology?"

"Medicine, actually. I want to be a medical examiner."

"Wow. That's impressive. Your dad a medical man?" Tim asked as the girl fumbled in her purse for her dorm key.

"Yes. He is. What are you studying?" She asked as she let him in her room.

"Is this alright on the desk?" Catriona nodded and Tim put the pile of books on the desk in the main room. "Bio-medical engineering and then I plan on going to MIT for computer forensics. My dad's in the navy."

"Not following in his footsteps?"

"No, we're never really got on. Well, I'm just across the hall if you need me... Need anything... You know what I mean." Tim stumbled over his words and was shocked when Katie smiled.

"Thank you, Tim..."

"McGee. Timothy McGee."

"Thank you, Tim McGee. I know this is sudden and we've only just met, but I don't know anyone here, perhaps we could get a drink together sometime- as friends?" Catriona asked, leaning in the doorway to her dorm room, Tim in the corridor.

"It would be an honour to be your friend, Katie.."

"Mallard. Like the duck."

"Katie Mallard, a honour it will be." With that the pair shook hands and it was the start of a wonderful friendship which lasted through the years. In all that time, Catriona never told Tim about her adoption and the true nature of her parentage. It wasn't that she was ashamed, it was because she had never known any other parent except Ducky.

* * *

Catriona sat with her hands around her pink china tea cup in her father's autopsy room. Her father sat across from her so her back was to the body bag, Jimmy Palmer had rolled in on the gurney from the medical examiner's van from New Orleans.

"Catriona... I hate to ask... How close were you and Andrew?" Ducky began, watching his daughter carefully.

"We were work colleagues and friends, papa. Not how you're thinking. Sometimes I would stay at his in his large estate house when he worked late on a case but that's because he didn't want me driving back to the French quarter late at night. Papa what do I do?"

"About what, Catriona?" Ducky asked, curious now.

"He's left me everything, with family left, he's left everything to me. The house, his car... Everything. Said I understood what true loyalty, beauty and compassion was." Catriona smiled at that.

"It is up to you what you do with the house and his belongings... But why bring him to me?"

"I don't trust anyone else to do it and because, he was murdered and I want his killer caught."

"How do you know he was murdered?"

"I heard it all down a phone line. He called me just before the bullet was shot through his brain by a man. He was foreign by his accent." Catriona's voice broke and she burst into tears, the third bout she'd had since her father had taken her from the bullpen in the squad room. Ducky took her hand and held it tightly in his own.

"There there, duckling. Gibbs will get him, I promise," Catriona nodded, unable to speak. "How about some more Ceylon tea?"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Explanations

A little while later, Ducky accompanied Catriona back upstairs to the bullpen and Gibbs' team.

Tim rose as they entered and Catriona squeezed his hand as she passed and made her way to Gibbs' desk. Gibbs looked up at her and flashed her a gentle smile before rising from his seat and moving around the desk to wrap her in his arms.

"Hello, Katie."

"Hello, uncle Jethro." Catriona said, dropping her American accent, Tim smiled- that was the voice he remembered, the loving and beautiful lilt which sounded even more beautiful when it was put to music.

"What are you doing here? Apart from visiting your old dad?" Gibbs shot a kind look at Ducky who returned it.

"My boss was murdered and I asked Da to do the autopsy. I cannae do it alone." Catriona said, slipping into her native tongue once more.

"Murdered?" Tim asked and Catriona nodded, turning to him.

"Yes. I want his killer caught. I'm afraid at the moment I havenae got much for ye, Timmy." Catriona said walking slowly towards him. He gulped as he found his gaze slipping lower than her eyeline.

"Okay," he gasped out. "What have we got?"

"Male, mid to late sixties I would say, foreign. As I said not much. He knew Andy though, he called him "lieutenant". I heard it down a phone line." She said answering DiNozzo and Tim's questioning gazes.

"Right. I'll work on it." Tim nodded as he sat typing at his desk. Minutes later, everyone dispersed back to labs, to desks and to autopsy, and Tim felt a pair of arms slip around his neck and two slender, pale hands lay flat on his chest.

"Katie?" He questioned.

"Always." Catriona smiled in his ear and Tim smiled too. He stopped typing. "There isn't much more I can do here at the moment. can we..." He was interrupted by Katie's phone ringing and her arms, he'd been enjoying being in, receded and dug into her coat pocket.

"Hello, love." She said, answering the ringing device. She listened carefully for a few minutes. "I'm alright, sweetheart, you didnae have to worry. I'm with Ducky." She listened again and flashed a look at Tim and smiled at him. He smiled back instantly.

"Aye, I'll sort it, I promise. I'll tell him... Soon... I know I've been saying that for months... Aye, I promise. Be good, study hard. I love ye. Bye." She put down her phone and slipped it back in her pocket and then turned back to McGee. "You were saying Tim?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Yes it does. Everything you have to say matters to me, old chum." She teased perching on the edge of his desk, her pencil skirt moving up slightly as she did so, her knee high boots hugged her calves. Tim stared and swallowed and looked up at her face, to find her laughing to herself. "I still have a power over you don't I?" She teased and Tim blushed. "Don't be embarrassed Tim, you still affect me too." Tim blushed even more,

"I was going to ask you to go for a drink with me." Tim said quietly so only she could hear, as Ziva and Tony looked up from their computers- they were checking bank statements and phone calls et cetera for Andy.

"I'd like that, Tim. I've missed ye." Her accent permanently back now, she was sick of hiding it.

"I've missed you too. You were gone for too long." Tim added, his hand on hers on his desk. He gazed at their hands and he flipped over her left hand and ran his finger along her knuckles. She smiled and pulled a chain out from the space between her ample chest and held it out to him.

"Looking for something?" She asked and his eyes met hers and then flashed to the glinting item on the chain. A ring. But not just any ring. The one he had given her before she went back to Scotland all those years ago.

"Yes. Glad you've still got it." Tim smiled.

"Aye, and I hope the sentiment behind it still stands." She smiled back with a wink.

"Yes, it does... Unless there is someone else." He whispered, thinking of her phone call.

"No, there is no one else, Tim. Only you." She kissed the back of his head and he looked up at her again.

"Looks like we both have a few explanations to give one another and the team." He said.

"Aye, but not just yet. Between us first, Mr McGee." She teased.

"Yes, Mrs McGee to be, you're right. As always."

"Not always, just sometimes." They exchanged a smile and both thought back to that day 15 years ago when she had said yes.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Proposals

15 years ago, two years into their relationship.

It was Catriona's birthday and Tim had planned a lovely dinner for the tow of them in their little one bed flat they were renting for their final years at Johns Hopkins. He had prepared her favourite dinner- Spag Bol with lots of Parmesan cheese, white wine and chocolate ice cream sundaes for dessert- as a special occasion was planned by Tim for Catriona, not just her birthday. He took a deep breath and tapped his trouser pocket as the door opened into their flat and Catriona arrived home.

Tim turned on the CD player and the first track of the Scottish folk music he'd bought for the occasion began. Catriona heard and emerged from the hallway section and into the main, living/dining and kitchenette area of their flat, gasping as she spied all Tim had done.

There were candles lit, giving a gentle and romantic mood, the music reminded her of home and her father and the aroma of the food hit her like a wave of flavours. She was stunned beyond belief.

"What's this?" She asked. In her lilting Scottish accent.

"Happy birthday, Katie." Tim smiled, holding his arms out displaying the room to her.

She laughed, lightly and kissed him tenderly, hands on either side of his face. "Thank you, Tim. It's perfect."

"Anything for my lady." He teased and held out her chair for her, let hr sit and tucked her under their table a little before he disappeared into the kitchenette and dished up their dinners before returning to the table and his girl.

After dinner and dessert, before he brought out her birthday cake, which he'd had someone make for her in the shape of a St Andrew's flag, the national flag of Scotland, he handed her two boxes. One from the side board and the one from his pocket.

"Open the big one first." He instructed as he watched her and she sipped her wine before turning her attention to the presents. Inside the bigger one was a new notebook with her name embossed in the front. It's cover was made of red leather and Catriona smiled at him.

"Thank you, Tim. That will be perfect for my notes, next semester." She kissed his cheek. Then squawked in surprise as he took up the little black box and got out of his chair to kneel, on one knee, beside her chair.

"Catriona Mae Mallard, my best friend, my lover and the love of my life. In the words of the Song of Solomon, 'I have found the one whom my soul loves' and because I love you and I cannot imagine living without you, I ask you this... Catriona Mae Mallard, will you marry me?" Tim said clearly, he had rehearsed it many times before she arrived home determined to get it right. Catriona stared at him, then smiled and stared once more as he opened the box to reveal a Celtic knot engraved, yellow gold engagement ring with a diamond affixed to it prominent and dazzling in the candle light. It must have cost him a huge amount.

"Yes. Yes Tim. I'll marry you." She said at last as Tim grinned and slipped the ring from the box and slid it onto the fourth finger of her left hand, before kissing it and then kissing Catriona.

"Good. I'm glad you said yes. I don't know what I would have done if you'd said no." Tim smirked.

"I would never say no to you Tim. Never. Thank you, for the two best presents in the world."

"Two?" He asked curiously.

"The best birthday ever, and you." She whispered leaning closer.

"Cake can wait." He said huskily and stood up pulling Catriona with him towards their tiny bedroom. They did not reemerge for a while and when they did, they did so for cake and each other.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Dinner for two

Later on in the day, no leads had been discovered and Catriona had called some co workers who had promised to bring up some of Andy's personal files for searching the following day, Catriona and Tim sat in the bull pen and talked quietly with each other waiting for Ducky to arrive.

"So, dinner it is then?" Tim asked, stroking her hand with his fingers. Soft hands for a medical examiner- a Scottish trait, he'd always thought. At that moment Ducky arrived and the pair snapped apart.

"Ready to go, duckling?" He asked and Catriona smiled.

"Daddy, if its all the same, Tim is going to take me to dinner for old times sake. He'll drop me back later. I won't stay out late, I promise." Catriona slid off the desk and went over to her father, hugging him and kissing his forehead.

"Verra well, Duckling. Take your time and enjoy yourself. I'll see you at home." Ducky kissed her cheek and left, placing his hat on his head with a flourish.

"See you later, da, don't wait up." She smiled as he waved from the lift. Then alone in the bullpen, she wrapped her arms around Tim's neck, his hands settling at her waist. "Hello, Tim."

"Hello, Katie." He replied, giving her a tender kiss, the first in 15 years and hopefully the first of many.

When they broke apart for necessary air, they linked arms and left together to go to the little Italian around the corner from the navy yard. A tiny, compact little place but which had a reputation for being wonderfully flavoursome and delicious. They sat in a little booth seat together at the rear of the restaurant where they talked and ate the wholesome food laid before them.

Mid way through dinner, Tim plucked up the courage to ask Catriona about her phone call.

"Katie, who rang you earlier. They sounded close to you." He asked quietly.

"Yes they are. It was my daughter." She let this comment linger in the air. Tim nodded, knowingly- though of course he didn't. "I thought you knew." She added at his face, resting her fork on the edge of her plate.

"Knew what?"

"I wrote to you and told you. I heard nothing, I assumed you were shocked or whatever."

"Knew what?" He urged again, laying down his own fork.

"She's your daughter too. Our daughter, Alice Rose." She pulled out her purse and handed Tim a photograph of a tall, willowy, girl of 14 with a pale complexion, dark hair and hazel eyes- Tim's eyes.

"When did you know?" He asked.

"1 month or so after I went to Scotland. I wrote to you in Annadale and in MIT. But heard nothing, so I raised her myself, bringing her back to the states with me when I went to New Orleans. I thought you were scared or something." She said sadly as Tim gazed at the picture.

"Scared of what? She's beautiful, like her mom." Tim praised and Catriona smiled.

"Scared of parenthood or something." She admitted.

"Never, I could never be scared of something as precious as this- a family. I never got your letters." He murmured again.

"Perhaps you should talk to your mum or Penny, about that then." Catriona suggested- more inclined to think Admiral McGee had something to do with it.

"I will. But right now, I just want to spend some time with my girl. I'd like to meet her- Alice Rose." Tim said finally, taking her hand in his across the table.

"I'll see what I can do about her school hours or something. I might get her up here with Ben Stuart and Steve Wren when they bring up Andy's things." Catriona suggested, sadness obvious in her voice.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The truth is revealed and Fathers meet daughters.

Tim had dropped Catriona off at Ducky's the night they had been to dinner and now she walked into NCIS with Ducky, arm in arm. Two men were standing, backs straight and almost to attention in the bullpen, a white box in each one's hands. Catriona pulled away from Ducky and stood to attention and saluted the men who clicked their heels and laid the boxes down on the ground.

"Thank you, gunny. Thanks, Lieutenant." She said to the two men, her American accented Scottish slipping neatly back into place.

"Anything for you, ma'am or to help find Andy's killer." The taller of the pair, a blond man, said kindly, a Texan drawl to his voice.

"I appreciate it, Ben," Catriona said to the blond man before turning to the black haired one. "Is she here?"

"Aye, lass, she's here." The other, who must have been Steve, said as another Scot among their party. Catriona smiled and hugged both the men as they left. "Take all the time you need, lass."

"Thanks boys!" She called as they reached the elevator and saluted. Once they were gone she took a deep breath and stared at the boxes on the floor before picking up the pair of them and sticking them on DiNozzo and Ziva's desks. She moved towards Tim, who smiled and she gave him a look which said "stay". So he did as she moved off to the conference room upstairs leaving him alone with Tony and Ziva, Ducky and Gibbs.

Upstairs, Alice Rose was sat, picking at her shirt sleeve as she waited for her mother to arrive. She was still in shock, she hadn't understood why she had been sent to stay with Steve and his wife, Marissa, the night before... The night of the... Of her godfather's death.

She had cried when Steve had told her and Marissa had hugged her, but all she really wanted was to be with her mother, to support her. She looked up and brushed her dark hair off her pale face and out of her hazel eyes as the door opened. She stood up and rushed to hug herself close to the warm comforting embrace of her mother.

"Hello, lass." Catriona said, her Scottish lilt back, in that comforting tone she used with Alice Rose when she was upset.

"How could someone do such a thing, Ma?" Alice Rose said, tearfully.

"I cannae tell you lass, people do things for all manner of reasons." Catriona, stroked her tall daughter's back. Alice Rose's head, rested on her mother's shoulder with ease and that meant she was almost as tall as Tim, already at nearly 15.

"Ma? Have ye told them? Da and Granddad?" Alice Rose asked suddenly and pulled away from her mother's shoulder.

"Aye, he Da knows. But granddad doesnae yet, lassie. But he will, soon." Catriona promised. "Come on, Ali. There's someone who wants to meet ye."' She smiled and took her daughter by the arm down to the rest of her family.

Back downstairs, Tim smiled as he saw Catriona returned and then stared at her newly acquired companion. He recognised her, the girl from the photograph.

"Everyone, this is Alice Rose. My daughter." Ducky looked stunned at his daughter before he held out his arms for the child.

"Alice Rose. After your mother?" Ducky asked as the child hugged him.

"Aye. I hope ye are not angry, papa?" Catriona said, quietly.

"Nay, how could I be angry, with my ducklings?" Ducky expressed, hugging both of his girls.

"Good. Tim, its time to tell them." Catriona said as she and Alice Rose disentangled themselves from Ducky.

"Yes. Hello, daughter." He smiled to Alice Rose, a head shorter than him, like Catriona.

"Hello, Da." Alice Rose said, meeting her father's hazel eyes, brimming with tears. The pair hugged each other tightly. Tony and Ziva exchanged looks with each other, Abby did the same with Jimmy and Gibbs and Ducky just looked stunned.

"Daughter?" Tony asked.

"Yes, Tim and I met at University at Johns Hopkins, we dated for three years and then I went to Scotland to do my Medical Degree at Edinburgh where dad went. A month after I arrived I found I was pregnant with Alice Rose. Tim is her father." Catriona smiled, her hand on Tim's shoulder.

"And Katie is my fiancée. We're going to get married, now she's back here..." Tim smiled and Alice Rose grinned excitedly.

"I am also going to ask for a transfer to NCIS or the local hospital, Alice's schooling is being transferred too." Catriona said proudly.

"I'm so glad. Welcome to the family, Timothy." Ducky said holding out his hand for Tim to shake.

"Thanks, Ducky. I'll take good care of her."

"You better." Came another voice from the end of the bullpen and Catriona put herself between the newcomer and her family, pushing Alice Rose behind her, protectively.

"Get. Out." Catriona hissed and the newcomer laughed maniacally.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Childhood repeats itself.

"Come come, young Catriona," the dark haired man said as he turned around to face the group. Gibbs and Tim had their hands on their guns, just in case. "Is that anyway to greet your childhood friend?"

"Friend?! No effing way." Catriona scoffed in a growl, pushing Alice Rose further away, back towards Ducky.

"Okay, you're right, I'm not really a friend... I'm a fellow med student of Edinburgh University. Apologises I should have introduced myself, I am Archie Kincade, MD." the man smirked cruelly. He was an older man in his late fifties early sixties. His accent denoted him as a Scotsman.

"Get. Out." Catriona hissed again.

"I came to pay my respects to our old friend, Andy, Catriona."

"How did you know he was here? No one else did."

"A hunch, my dear. I knew you wouldn't let the boys of New Orleans do it." Archie stated, sitting himself on the edge of Ziva's desk. She glared and didn't move when tony place a hand on her arm.

"Archie Kincade. You, foul loathsome person. Get out now." Catriona hissed once more with more venom than before.

"Oh, my dear. Who have youth protect you when you threaten me? Eh?" Archie smirked.

"You have no idea how many. Tell, your boss, Erik Davenport, that if he takes one step towards Andy or my family, I'll kill him." Catriona smiled as Tim raised his gun slowly behind her, tony and Gibbs did the same as Archie stood up and took a step closer to Catriona.

"Shall I tell him how?"

"Aye, if you like. I'll sever his manhood, fry it and stuff it with haggis down his royal poxed throat until he chokes to death. I'll make it painful, I promise." Catriona smiled innocently and Archie nodded before turning away. "Oh, and Kincade! If you so much as move to hurt me or my family, I'll kill you too and let you suffer." She sang as Kincade paled and left the squad room.

Once he was gone, Catriona's resolve vanished and she sank to her knees, shaking in fear. Tim put his gun away and hugged her tight to him, Ducky, hugged Alice Rose to him and moved forward with a hand on Catriona's shoulder.

"Bastard." She sighed.

"I'm sorry, Catriona." Ducky said, a sad look on his face.

"Who was he, Katie?" Tim asked.

"The man who killed my parents." Catriona cried, Alice Rose kneeling beside her mum to hug her close.

"What?" Tim asked, not knowing this secret of Catriona's.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The car crash

"It happened when I was two or three, Tim," Catriona began, the whole team now sat together in the conference room with Alice Rose too. Alice Rose held her mother's hand and Tim sat next to her too, his hand on her shoulder. Catriona's hands were wrapped around a china cup of tea, curtesy of Ducky, who sat opposite her with Ziva. Tony and Gibbs stood by the wall."I don't remember Verra much about it."

"Tell us what you do know, Cat. That way we know what we're dealing with- with this guy, Kincade and his boss." Gibbs said kindly.

"I remember we driving across country, down country lanes in the highlands, nothing around us for miles until we entered a small town where we I believe, were meeting Ducky for something." Catriona met his eye sadly and Ducky flashed her a kind but sorrowful smile.

"Hogmanay. You were coming to me for Hogmanay that year."

"Oh, I didn't know that. Anyway we passed through the town on our way to Ducky's estate house just outside the town, when another car- a black truck like thing I think- came out of no where and ploughed into my father's side of the car. I don't really remember anything after that until about two years later when Archie Kincade was arrested after his DNA was found on my mother's belongings. He'd been looking for something." Catriona sighed, fighting the tears.

"Why did it take two years?" Gibbs asked flashing a look from Catriona to Ducky.

"They found the foreign DNA at the time but it was in the system for two years before they got a match." Ducky explained. "In court he said he hadn't intended to kill anyone - Catriona's father Hugh, died instantly and Alice Rose her mum, died in hospital of wounds received. Catriona was injured too, but as severely. The charge was manslaughter not murder. Kincade got 15 years."

"Do you mean my scar, da?" Catriona asked and Ducky nodded. Unconsciously Catriona touched her waist and upper thighs stroking softly in reminiscence.

"Aye, lass, I do. I never felt pain worse, then or since as I felt when you were hurting, my Catriona." Ducky held out a hand for her and she grasped it tightly.

"My Catriona," he said again. "Catriona Rose Victoria Monroe Mallard."

"Victoria?" Tim asked.

"After my mother. She always wanted a grandchild. In a sense she got one with Cait," Ducky smiled again. "You're safe now, lass, no harm will come to ye here. None."

When he said things like that, Catriona knew he was right and always felt safe. Her relaxed repose was interrupted by Gibbs' phone ringing.

"Yea Abs?" His face fell and anger filled his eyes.


End file.
